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Parades and Pasta for Mardi Gras in New Orleans

·New Orleans, Louisiana·#travel#new-orleans#mardi-gras#winter-2020#parades
A vibrant night parade float with costumed people, a boat, and an illuminated underwater scene featuring a mermaid and sea creatures.

Mardi Gras is what we came for, and the parades don't make you work for them — no tickets, just pick a stretch of St. Charles and stand there while the floats come down from Napoleon Avenue. The night ones were the big spectacle: a sea-themed float with a red-haired mermaid painted taller than the riders, a wooden boat full of crowned figures, a krewe in orange satin throwing from a castle two stories high. Beads were already hanging off the power lines and the bare trees before we got there.

Dinner in between was the pasta half of the trip — stuffed pasta in brown butter with kale, eaten fast because we wanted back out on the route.

Zulu rolled in daylight, a double-decker jazz float with a Bourbon St. sign bolted to the railing and every arm on the barricade up at once. It and Rex are the two big ones, and the crowd behaved like it knew that.

Ended up at the hotel rooftop pool at dusk, fire pits going, the towers downtown still lit from the day.

A vibrant parade float with a boat and mermaid passes a nighttime crowd, with tall buildings in the background.A night parade scene with a large float featuring a figure in a chef's hat, surrounded by people with raised hands.A night parade features costumed people on decorated floats passing a large brick building under streetlights.A colorful parade float with costumed figures and spectators at night, in front of a multistory brick building.A vibrant night parade float with costumed figures and spectators passes a tall brick building.A plate of pasta with reddish-filled ravioli, dark green kale, and a light brown sauce, with a fork on the side.A multi-tiered parade float with people in costumes, a trumpet player, and a crowd with raised hands under an overcast sky.A bright blue illuminated rooftop swimming pool at dusk overlooks a city skyline with many lit buildings, including a prominent skyscraper.

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